Santa Maria delle Vigne is a Roman Catholic basilica church in Genoa, Italy. It was built in the 10th century. The main altar was completed in 1730 by Giacomo Antonio Ponsonelli. The church is also the final resting place of the leading early Italian composer Alessandro Stradella, who was murdered in 1682. History Situated outside of the Carolingian-era walls, in what is now the heart of the historical center, a short distance from the cathedral of San Siro, the basilica is considered the most ancient shrine to the Virgin Mary in Genoa. A chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary had been built in this place by the 6th century, as a response to a Marian apparition to Argenta of the . On the site of this first sacred building, shortly before the year 1000, a church was built, named Santa Maria delle Vigne because it was located in the center of an area containing vineyards. In the middle of the 10th century, the farm where the chapel was built belonged to a viscount, Idone, who gave it to his son Oberto. Around 980, Oberto, together with Guido di Carmandino, promoted the construction of the new church on the site of the ancient chapel. The first official reports of the new building date back to the Registrum Curiae of 1083. A collegiate church was also founded, which appears in a document of 1061, where it was mentioned as having existed for a long time. In 1222, Pope Honorius III issued a papal bull, fixing the number of canons at 12 and establishing the rules of the community. The provost of the chapter still holds the title of Prelate of Honour of His Holiness. A town arose around the church in the 12th century, and was incorporated together with San Siro in the urban fabric of a city which was growing and now extended outside its early Carolingian walls. It was consecrated in 1117, and in 1147, shortly before the new "Barbarossa walls" contained it within the town limits, the church became the parish church of what would shortly become one of the liveliest commercial districts near the Port of Genoa. The construction of the campanile, the only Romanesque structure remaining after the renovations of future centuries, also dates to this period. Additional work was done in the 13th century, including to the roof. The first major alterations to the original Romanesque